Originally posted on https://www.infinityexhibits.com/trade-show-ideas-guaranteed-to-make-your-software-company-stand-out/

 

A trade show is often a make or break moment for a business. That’s especially true if you’re launching a new product or you are trying to build your brand within a specific industry.

Trade shows present a rare opportunity for you to be seen as a leader in your industry and connect directly with current and potential customers in one place. There’s a reason why it’s a multi-billion dollar industry.

The trade show design has to be just perfect if you want to make a big impact. Are you in need of inspiring trade show ideas?

Keep reading for the best ways you can create a trade show booth that people will remember.

1. Get Inspired

You’ve probably been to many trade shows over your career. Think back and remember the exhibitors that stood out. Make notes of the elements that made them stood out. Maybe it was a giveaway or how the booth design welcomed attendees.

These are the elements that you want to emulate in your own booth design. You can go outside of your industry for even more trade show ideas and inspiration.

You’ll also want to do some competitive research. You’ll want to know what your competition has done in the past and come up with creative ways to outdo them.

2. Make a Plan

The best way to approach the design of your trade show booth is to think outside the booth, so to speak. You’re really creating an experience for trade show attendees to get to know your company.

You want to visualize the flow of the booth. How will people approach the booth? For example, if you have a corner booth, you can expect traffic to come into your booth from multiple directions.

If your booth is placed along the normal flow of traffic, you may have to get more creative to attract attention.

The booth size is also important in your design. Do you have a 10 x 10 booth or a 20 x 20 booth?

Make a preliminary floorplan as to how you want people to interact with your trade show booth. This can be a simple sketch that serves as the foundation of your overall design.

3. Open and Approachable

The fastest way to turn people off to your brand is to have two people stuck behind a table looking down at their phones. That will tell people that they don’t want to be there, and they certainly don’t want to be bothered.

There are plenty of trade show ideas that can make your employees be more open and approachable. A trade show booth that is open and set back off of the trade show floor invites participants to get to know your brand.

4. Everything Relates to Your Brand

A trade show presents the biggest opportunity for your brand to stand out as a leader in your industry. You don’t want to miss that opportunity because your booth design doesn’t align with your brand.

The colors, fonts, and flooring of the booth need to match the brand. Even the materials you use to design your booth says something about your brand.

5. Have an Innovative Way to Engage People

In order to have a successful trade show, you need to get people involved. The old way of doing trade shows was that you’d have a booth and people would sit behind a table. They’d wait for someone to walk by and ask questions.

They might engage with a few people, but that’s it. Now, you need to be creative to stand out. You want to maintain your brand’s authenticity and be approachable without looking desperate.

You’ll need to have innovative ways to engage people at a trade show. You could have giveaways that are fun. The more that you can engage people, the more they will remember your company.

6. Choose “The One Thing”

What’s the one thing you want trade show attendees to walk away with? That’s something that you need to ask yourself early on in the design process. You want your design to focus on that one thing that you want people to remember.

One reason why vendors aren’t successful at trade shows is that they try to do too much. They try to explain their full slate of solutions instead of focusing their energy on just one thing.

It’s easy to decide your one thing if the purpose of the trade show is a product launch. If you’re there to increase your brand awareness, you can focus on your brand story to make that connection with attendees.

7. Use Other Marketing Efforts During the Trade Show

You can design the best trade show booth, but if there’s no story behind it, then people aren’t going to connect with it as deeply as they could.

There are other marketing efforts that you can use to tie into your trade show booth. You can have great promotional swag that people can take with them. You can also use social media to get your brand story out there.

You can do a behind the scenes look during the trade show or promote specific events during the show.

The Best Trade Show Ideas for Maximum Results

At the end of the day, you want to make sure that you get a return on your trade show investment. That will depend on a number of factors. The trade show booth design and staff work together to tell your brand story.

The design of your booth needs to reflect your brand and create an experience for attendees. Your staff needs to be out on the floor and actively engaging. When all elements are working together and engage trade show attendees, you’re sure to have a successful show.

These trade show ideas are meant to get you thinking about design ideas for your next show. Do you need help designing a trade show booth? Take a look at our full suite of design and fabrication services.